yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
The only thing that leaves me scratching my head, is that all of these people have reported that they weren't doing anything to their phone, other than watching it sleep, lol. If they had said 'I flashed this, or flashed that, and then the result was no recovery and bootloops", then I'd definitely say that it was a bad download, corrupted file, or issue with how the recovery flashed it. But, if these guys are being honest about what happened (which, why would they lie?), then it just seems soooo strange, that an idle phone that wasn't in use, just goes into a mysterious and unrecoverable bootloop. Sounds so screwy, but that's what they've all reported. *scratches head*
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jayharper08:
I don't recall seeing any sense users having this problem. :/ If it is a recovery problem it has to be some sort of recovery+aosp problem right? Just asking because I, like the rest of us, would like to know wth is going on :) Don't get me wrong, I love the aosp roms as much as the next guy, but I worried too much for it to be my daily without knowing the cause of it.

Sent from "The EVO" using XDA Premium
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
To those having this issue, are you able to use adb?

If so, have you tried reflashing the recovery partition?

If flash is successful, does it let you back into recovery?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
I'm not one of the guys having problems, but am curious about hte situation. I asked one of the guys if fastboot or adb would recognize teh device, but I didn't get a response from him. At least trying to get a logcat when it's trying to boot, if possible.

How does one go about reflashing a recovery partition? I was unaware that such a thing could be done. Reflashing the recovery image would be great too, if adb works.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
Assuming adb can see the phone, from a dos prompt;

adb shell

mount /sdcard

flash_image recovery {full path of recovery image}

reboot recovery

Full path name above refers to /sdcard/filename.ext of the recovery image. If it's not in root, you can adjust the path. If you're lazy, you can just change to the folder itself and not include the path at all. Look in the dev section for the amon_ra's thread on recoveries. He includes both the .img file and a PC36IMG.zip (or is it .ZIP) for flashing thru the bootloader.

I'm surprised people flash CM but are not familiar with adb. It's the holy grail of recovery along with the boot loader.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] teh roxxorz:
I too am quite intrigued on that notion...
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
Yea, I hear ya. I use adb on a daily basis, for anything. I'll use adb wireless sometimes too, and be pushing files when my phone's in a different room charging on the wall (love that). Anyways, yea, i knew how to flash a recovery image through adb, but you initially said 'recovery partition'. I thought you were speaking of something different, when i responded in my last response. My mistake on the confusion.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
It was my understanding the recovery software resides on it's own partition, thus my statement. To me flashing the recovery image and reflashing the recovery partition both mean the same thing :)
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] alaman68:
most frightening thread ever
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] teh roxxorz:
I thanked you...that was great.

But yea, no bueno thread.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bigblueshock:
I was lurking on some other forums/posts dealing with this issue. It seems some people's MicroSD cards were malfunctioning somewhat. Have you guys tried booting without the card, or using a different card? Worth a shot i suppose.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jayharper08:
Def couldn't hurt anything.

Sent from "The EVO" using XDA Premium
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
I had everyone I tried to help try formatting their SD card, and also tried booting without the SD card. I had also seen that some people had success with a different SD card, but unfortunately that didn't work out in these cases. :(
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
I was thinking of it differently. I was thinking that the recovery software, (which I thought was the recovery image), was installed in its own "area", which I was referring to as "the recovery partition". Whether that's accurate or not, I'm not sure. Under that idea, my theory was that the recovery partition could be corrupt, thus preventing the recovery image from installing correctly. Again, that's complete wild speculation, and am just thinking out loud, hoping someone corrects me so I can learn some cool stuff!
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] boobaroo:
I dont think it has to do with a recovery problem, because one prson said they tried Amon and I am using Clockwork. I am able to access bootloader and have tried numerous RUU's but no progress.

The phone bootloops at the EVO white screen and then turns off and starts again. So even with a battery pull and trying just to turn the phone on without going into recovery it still does it. So I dont see it being a problem with recovery. The phone just wont turn on.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thanamesjames:
I struggled to fix my phone for probably over 20 hours when this happened to me, so if you guys have any questions, I'll answer them. I'm nothing close to a dev, but I would love to help, because it was a serious pain when it happened to me.

I had been using CM7 nightlies before RC1 came out, but had actually flashed MIUI a few hours before the rebooting occurred and can confirm that my phone WAS NOT in use when the rebooting occured.

No ADB commands are available while in bootloader, however fastboot is.

Here are the things I tried:

Ran RUU software in Windows (with and without sd card in evo)

Flashed RUU as PC36IMG in bootloader

Cleared Storage using fastboot in command prompt

Cleared Recovery and then Flashed Amon Ra's Recovery and Clockwork using fastboot in command prompt

Flashed Amon Ra's Recovery and Clockwork as PC36IMG in hboot

Flashed Sprint Lover's as PC36IMG in hboot

Flashed eng-PC36IMG from Toastctfh's Old Root Tutorial as PC36IMG in hboot

Here is a thread that I started on the subject if anyone wants to take a look:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=940463
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] teh roxxorz:
I bestow upon you thy first thanks. I don't have this issue, but a couple other users and I have been trying to help these people and this is some goof stuff, so thank you.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
Thanks for all the suggestions comments, guys. I am going to get back to it this morning and try everything I can before I take it for a swim.

Regarding adb, I can't get it to recognize the phone. The bootloader is the only place I can access while the phone is on and not boot looping
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
Ok now the hard question. For those of you who tried everything and then gave up, did you eventually intentionally damage your phone beyond repair so that you could take it into the Sprint store? From what I can tell, there is no way to get S-ON back under these circumstances.

One guy kept pulling his battery during radio updates until he finally bricked the phone. Other alternatives include drowning, and having someone run over it with a car. I have the insurance for it, so I think pretty much anything goes.

What did you do when you found that you were totally out of options?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scriptx:
I had a similar issue on a recent refurb that I have since traded back in but had no idea of these threads and of other users experiencing the same.

If you're going to return the device, just grab the latest RUU zip from a mirror like goo-inside.me and follow the standard unrooting instructions (http://goo-inside.me/evo/stock/RUU/).

I wonder if WiMax or other radio/hdmi developments played any role in these problems. Since you're pretty much SOL anyway, it might be worth a shot to try downloading a much older RUU.zip (before radio 2.15). Place the .zip as PC36IMG.zip to your sdcard and boot recovery. Allow the complete update. Once booted to the ROM, update profile and PRL.

At that point.. check for stability, etc. You can then also flash over this ROM a newer RUU to bring your WiMax, Radio and PRI images up to date.

The theory behind this is, from what I saw and can tell, it's an underlying (hardware) issue, not a software (ROM) issue. Logcat was utterly useless to me in troubleshooting this problem because there wasn't any consistency. I returned the phone to stock, and brought it right in for a replacement.

Best of luck!
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
It may be a bad block in memory? All I know is I'm getting off of CM7 now. I read somewhere that the Evo can't handle bad blocks and will refuse to boot instead of working around them.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
I don't have access to the recovery, that's the problem. The bootloader is as far as I can get
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lowetax:
i've always heard when recovery not working,

erase it and fastboot a good copy

(i've done this a few times just to see how it works)

amon_ra recovery - flash via fastboot

fastboot erase recovery

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

fastboot reboot
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dougjamal:
Some people have tried similar methods and the recovery did indeed take, however, upon rebooting, the nightmare begins again. That is what's so frustrating.

Posting & replying via the XDA Premium app
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
UPDATE

So, I flashed an official sprint RUU by putting on the root of my SD card and naming it "PC36IMG.zip". It put the phone back into S-ON status. It still boot loops, but at least now I can take it into the Sprint store and play dumb...

"What is rooting?"
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dougjamal:
Wise decision, my friend. I, too, have tested both CM7 RC2 as well as nightlies 29 & 30, but I've since dumped them. I've gone as far as deleting the nandroid backups of them. With the growing number of issues arising from its use, I've decided the risk is too great to continue using it.

Posting & replying via the XDA Premium app
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dougjamal:
Can you post the link to the RUU you used? Others have tried RUUs and still remained S-OFF.

Posting & replying via the XDA Premium app
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
Wow, it actually turned s on for ya? Awesome, take it to sprint now!
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
So I was a bit confused, did you eventually get it fixed, by doing those steps?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
Fred, do you know if there's a way to check for bad blocks? And does anyone know what a "slate test" is? I saw in the "official random reboot thread" that a Guy said Sprint did a slate test on his phone, and they told him it "failed" everything, and the hardware was shot, and not repairable. They replaced his phone on spot. So what does a "slate test " check for, anyone know?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NasTraDooMis:
It totally corrupted my 32gb sd beyond repair . Put my old 8gb sd in and had some issues with that also like any apps or widgets on sd card would not load upon reboot. With root explorer i found that for some reason the card had mounted as R/O, changed back to R/W and now it seems ok.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
According to what I've read, a Slate is a piece of hardware (like a computer) that Sprint plugs the phone into and it performs diagnostic tests on it. I believe the latest OTA provided support for it.

Try putting the card into a camera and format it (called a low-level format). This usually does the trick.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ageesm:
I just left CM7 the other day for other reasons, but spend quite a bit of time on it. I flashed all the nightlies for a while. I think I will hold off going back for a bit.

After reading through a few of these threads, this is the first thought I had too. That some memory is corrupted and no matter how small or where, it is causing problems. It is mostly well above my head and everyone that has helped out has given all the same suggestions I would...
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] staindone:
Yeah, I am also wondering that too.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NasTraDooMis:
I'm just wondering if it could have been a virus ? I didn't want to admit it but when i was on cm7 destroyer rom my problems didn't start until after i had installed applanet and downloaded a few apps with that. And i got all the exact same headaches as described in this thread. I wonder if anyone else that have/had these issues where also running applanet ? Just saying. Perhaps it had nothing to do with our problems at all and mine just happened to start at the same time i used applanet.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
Thanks, I figured it was some sort of diag hardware.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NasTraDooMis:
"Try putting the card into a camera and format it (called a low-level format). This usually does the trick."

I tried everything. i used " Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool " and "MiniTool Partition Wizard " to format it and it seemed to work to get it to format but was having problems with transferring files to it, like if i tried to transfer anything over 125mb back it would get to say about 75mb transfered and a windows message popup would appear (i dont recall what it was though), and i would have to click "try again" several times for it to complete. Or while transferring the process would just stop and the card would just totally unmount itself from the computer, and that was through the card reader or through a usb adapter. And also after reformatting the card when plugging back into the PC i would always get that popup window saying there is an issue with the card and recommend to "scan and fix the card". I scanned the card too for bad blocks and it came up clean. I sent the card back to Sandisk , hopefully they will fix it or send me a new one.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thanamesjames:
Congrats! Wish I would have realized that worked! For the time being, until a fix is found, that is the best thing that can realistically happen for you.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thanamesjames:
I'm sorry I had made a post earlier in the thread, but didn't make it clear by reading that one. No, I never got it to work, or S-On, glad OP got S-On though, it's a big start for the people with this problem!

Anyways I wound up bricking my phone while installing a radio.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
So I guess for now either roll back to CM 6 or use a Sense ROM + Sense Removal Script.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thearch1tect:
I wish I was more knowledgeable about this stuff to give some advice, but I hope a solution is found soon .. makes my heart sink just thinking about it
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
Sorry guys, just got around to turning the computer on.

I completely forgot that adb is only functional if you get past the white splash screen. However, fastboot does indeed work in the bootloader. I don't recall however, if this is true with hboot 2.10, or you need to have the engineering hboot for these commands to work (.76.x)

If you do select recovery from the boot loader, does it still get stuck at the white splash, or you get a red triangle with an exclamation point? If the latter, then adb should work. If you don't get that far, then fastboot is the only option.

@Westibone, on the topic of boot looping, what specifically is looping, the boot animation, or it's just never getting past the splash. I've had bootloops with the animation, and adb was able to see the phone.

I think your first sentence is 100% correct. My understanding is identical. Now, if the recovery partition itself has bad blocks, and there are insufficient spare blocks, then your theory that the recovery image was not being flashed/installed fully/correctly. I don't recall the exact size of the partition, but your line of thinking makes perfect sense. Reviewing the log from the formatall script, I came to realize my system partition has 177 bad blocks! At 4096 bytes per block, thats 725MB. Fortunately, the partition is so large, that even with these errors, I still have 125MB free.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] k2buckley:
I'm assuming he got S on because he had never used unrevoked forever. As I understood it, if you ever ran unrevoked forever, then the ONLY way to get s on was to flash the unrevoked s on tool. Unless the OP just had some crazy luck, where the pc36img happened to turn s on. I couldn't get that to work for anyone else, no matter how many times we tried. He's lucky.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
No, sometimes the phone will go back to S-ON out of nowhere. This has happened to me once. It's pure luck.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] RileyGrant:
725kb my good friend.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
@RileyGrant Mr. Smartypants!!! :D I'd be in serious trouble if my bad block size exceed capacity of the memory!!
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BrashL:
Might be worth calling around to my local Sprint stores to see if they have one of these Slates. I imagine if they use it and find it all messed up, they're not gonna bother checking S-On since it's clear hardware failure at that point.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
Some stores have experienced people who will put the fact that it's S-OFF before the fact that there's a hardware problem, just to save them some time and money.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BRUTAL BROCK:
Just happened to my Evo.

I got $50 for a fix.

:)
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
This is correct. I have never used unrevoked forever. I rooted using Toast's original method back in July of last year.

In any case, I just got back from the Sprint store, and they did give me a new phone, which of course I will root as soon as I have a little time. I won't be going back to CM7 until it's finalized, even though the odds of this happening to me again are pretty small.

The most frustrating thing about this problem was, of course, that you have no access to recovery, which is naturally what gives you the most options when things go wrong.

I am not at my main computer right now, but I will try to post a link to the RUU I used when I get back to my desk.

I am glad I didn't have to end up drowning my phone or something, which I believe would have caused me to have to pay a deductible of some kind.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BRUTAL BROCK:
So I just called Sprint, and they basically told me that if my screen was cracked, water damage, or anything physical damage, I have to pay a $50 deductible and get a refurbished phone. The rep is a friend of mine, he told me that if I can get the original Sprint OS (in our case we can't) he will exchange my phone for a new one.

Anyone else get the same response?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] reallynotnick:
I'm confused by your comment, are you suggestion he is wrong? If I read this right you are suggesting 725kb is more than your whole card which is not the case. He is correct, (well more correct assuming blocks really are in bytes not bits) if that number of 4096 bytes is correct it is only 725kB (not lowercase 'b' like he said), so 3/4 of a MB.

If I misread your comment someone my apologies.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gpz1100:
No, he's not wrong at all, although you are technically more correct :). I did mean to type 755 kilobytes, but somehow managed to get an M in there. Just pointing humor at his pointing out this error. The 4096 # came from one of the system info programs that detailed the storage capacities. I can't recall which as I've had several on here recently trying to track down a network/battery consumption drain.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Westibone:
I believe this is standard. If the hardware fails or there is an irrecoverable software error, they will just replace the phone. If you have the total replacement plan, they will replace it no matter what happens to it, but you will have to pay a deductible. If you don't have the protection plan, you are hosed if your phone gets physically damaged.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] samiusmc:
Is this just happening with the Evo? Have you heard of it happening with the OG Droid?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Greenfieldan:
New Question: What release were you on (people that have had this happen). Nightlies? RC1/2?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] asafegous:
What recovery version did you folks with loops run before? I'm on rc2 and did have random reboot but I have amon RA 2.3 as pcimg36.zip on my SD consistently. Always works.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BrashL:
I was on CM7 RC2 with clockwork. I have hardware revision 3 which I think has been the case with everyone? I decided to just take it in tomorrow with S-Off and see what happens.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Product F(RED):
This hasn't happened to me, but:

0004, CM7, RA 2.3. Do you know if you were on a late 0003 model with the larger erase size (40000)? I know late 0003s and all 0004s have different erase sizes.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BrashL:
I have no idea, any way to check from the bootloader?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] badassdes:
I had been using CM7 + nightlies for a while, but due to the GPS issue, I flashed a sense ROM. After a couple of hours of being with Myn's ROM, and while not using the phone, it restarted by itself, restarting on the EVO white screen and turning off and on continuosly. I was lucky to be able to access recovery, but from there, when 'reboot' was selected, the phone restarted again, repeating this several times. In one time, while on recovery, I was able to select wipe and I did a full wipe x 3. So I proceed and flashed CM7 again... my phone is back working. I'm basically a newbie and I'm not sure if the problem I had was the same problem you guys are talking about.

But in my case, these happened AFTER I installed Applanet and downloaded a few apps... (???)
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 00mred00:
I have had this odd bootloop no recovery or bootloader issue twice...both on hardware three phones...repeated (3 hours worth) of :

pull battery

power on into bootloader

flash pc36img

flash stock rom/recovery package

eventually worked... I forget the number of times I tried...but imagine doing it repeatedly for 3 hours

the problem I had was that ruu didn't work because I was running a mishmash of different hboot radios etc than what the ruu's were.

I will see if I can find the specific image I used but basically I was trying to unroot when it occurred.... flashed the s-on from recovery but then jacked up somewhere before I could flash the stock image from recovery ...phone would just bootloop

did the steps above and the first time I got it to go into the bootloader (s-on) it picked up the pc36img file and worked...both times this has happened.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sunny_syed:
hey can u post the file u were re flashing?
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ageesm:
Hasn't happened to me either, 0004, CM7-Nightly 25 was the latest I was on, RA2.3.

I thought that was the case as well, but I have an 0004 and still have the smaller erase size (20000, same as earlier models). Back when the two recoveries weren't working with certain erase sizes I figured this out. I don't know if it is just random or I have some weird EVO :confused:.
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scriptx:
Try flashing amon recovery in PC36IMG.zip format via the bootloader. That should recover a working "recovery".
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 00mred00:
recoveries

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/259446-clockwork-amon-ra-pc36img-files.html
[EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Greenfieldan:
Noob question: How can I check which hardware version I have? haha